Erosion
Erosion is a game mechanic which causes growth of plants and deterioration of walls and buildings in full.
In base Project Zomboid, it takes 100 days until 100% growth. The day that Erosion reaches 100% growth can be changed in Sandbox settings. If you choose "Six Months Later" in Custom Sandbox, it will cause Erosion to be 100% grown upon loading in.
Features
Erosion is mostly visual as of now, only making the world feel more rundown and overgrown as the apocalypse progresses, along with some functions that will require the player to adapt and maintain.
- Features include
- Vines growing up walls, which can be removed with an axe.
- Cracks begin to appear on the walls, streets, and sidewalks, getting bigger over time. This does not currently reduce the structural integrity of a building or surface. Plaster and paint can be used to repair cracked walls.
- Tall grass will eventually grow on every outdoor dirt, grass, or sand tile. This can be removed by hand, or with a shovel.
- Trees will sprout, starting as small saplings and eventually tall fully grown trees. This is a renewable source of logs and branches, but can block the path for vehicles; saplings can initially be driven over but will force vehicles to drive extremely slowly, and trees will block vehicles entirely.
History
Erosion started out as a mod created by now developer TurboTuTone (Turbo) released in late 2013 on The Indie Stone forum. Turbo later joined the team in the second half of 2014, with the implementation of erosion being his first task.